All of the skills you have gained from your training and experience in your working life are all relevant to starting a business. There are some specific skills that you should acquire as you go along in your online business endeavor. Just as you learned on the job by experience you will do the same with whatever you focus your energy on.
Hands down the easiest way to get in there and start learning how to earn money online, is by being part of an affiliate program. You need to learn how to do marketing and advertising online, as well as how to write and communicate. With the affiliate marketing program business model, thankfully what you don’t need right off the bat is knowledge of how to develop, program and produce a product to sell; or need to know how to build your own organization and membership system.
Obviously developing a product or program yourself is time and money intensive. Probably more people would try to start a business if they knew they didn’t have to invest their resources this seriously without the benefit of any formal training or experience in this area. Everything in life is a gamble, but it is always best to be conservative and not to ‘gamble with more than you can afford to lose’ – because there are never any guarantees.
There are different kinds of affiliate programs and if you don’t feel comfortable earning commissions from referring people, then you can focus on selling the products and services provided by that program. These can be digital or physical products. Having multiple ways to earn money from one program is a great thing if people will fully engage in it. You can theoretically start earning money right away, keeping in mind that this usually involves marketing and advertising first.
This kind of program will supply you with an ID and a link that they give you to advertise along with a web page that is all ready for you to use. No programming or technical skills are required. You just set up your account and they will give you what you need to start. Most if not all affiliate programs also provide some level of training or coaching as well as possibly the use of some resources. You pay your membership dues which are usually very reasonable although there is a wide range as far as cost.
Another form of affiliate marketing would be where you work directly for a manufacturer selling their products by ‘drop-shipping’. You see some of the oldest home businesses in this niche – such as selling beauty or health products for example. Even though you don’t have to buy an inventory or deliver things to customers, these type of businesses may charge you for all materials you use such as order forms, brochures, etc. So while tangible products may be easier to sell, and have a reputation that you can benefit from, it is not as inexpensive for a start-up as a purely online-based business.
